[Audio] Apologies For My Lateness

Here’s one for all the people who have glanced pointedly at their watches when I arrive ten minutes late to – well – absolutely everything. Apologies For My Lateness is a somber little piece I wrote early this year, and since I’ve decided to expand my creative outlets, it’s going into your ears and not your eyes.

Ignore how disorienting that sounds.

Listen to my new – I don’t know what to call this, a poem I suppose – or read the text version below. I’d love to know what you think of this format, it’s very new to me.

Words are my own, soundtrack by Tri-Tachyon – @tri-tachyon on Soundcloud. Click play to listen, or scroll down to see the text version below.

Apologies For My Lateness

Dear Management

Apologies for my lateness
It was sunny and the sheets were soft
I was lying next to one of my favourite people in the world
I didn’t want to leave

Dear Client
Apologies for my lateness
Sometimes I think sleep is the closest I can get to the peace and lack of responsibility of death
This may sound grim
But it’s very freeing
And since there are parts of my life that bring me great joy
I chose sleep over death this morning

Dear Leadership
Apologies for my lateness to the crucial meeting
I hate caring about these things
And sometimes the pain of being almost late
Does a good job of distracting me from the fact
That I didn’t want to be there

Dear Colleagues
Apologies for my lateness
I was having trouble channelling the aesthetic taste of the person I was dressing for
So I tried on four different outfits
Before settling on this white t-shirt
Because I don’t think they think of me that way anyway

Dear Superiors
Apologies for my lateness
I woke up at 4am to the sound of cats fighting in the garden
And my heart clenched wondering if one of the cats was mine, and she was losing, getting hurt
Then I remembered that sweet little cat who died
And I cried
And I thought about how inevitable it is to get attached
And how inevitable it is to have those attachments ripped away from you
No matter how close
No matter if your veins and your skin had started growing together, interweaving life
And I remembered that everything I love as much as I loved that cat
Will be torn from me
Everything I love is ticking with a secret countdown
And then I thought how sad I would be if my mom died
And that I’m not allowed to mourn once the cheap black dress I wore to the funeral comes off
And that I have to be fine when my heart gets broken again, and again , and again
Forgive me
I overslept